Developing Generous Children, Part Two: Nurture Financial Learning Through Daily Living

by: VRcurator

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Humans tend to obsess over what they possess – or desire to possess.

Consider the following thoughts by Craig Bloomberg, professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary:

• The poor strive to acquire enough to survive
• Those whose basic needs are met naturally want more as a cushion
• The middle class is discontent because they see people with more
• The affluent compete with their peers in material one-upmanship

Advertising bombards us constantly, creating a consumer culture designed to make us feel shortchanged and always looking to acquire the next possession.

How do we stand any chance of developing generous children in such a consumeristic society?

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Your Kids Can Master Their Money by Ron and Judy Blue and Jeremy White

Current research tells us today’s kids and teens don’t know how to budget or spend wisely. They have purchasing influence, but they aren’t prepared to handle money. Parents presume that their kids “get it” or that they are learning these skills in school. Yet kids still need parental guidance on how to manage money.

Your Kids Can Master Their Money reveals key traits of financially wise people and gives parents tools to instill those traits in their children.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

According to noted financial consultant Ron Blue, there are five powerful trends pointing toward the necessity of teaching the next generation the truth about financial principles:

1. Financial illiteracy is the norm among America’s youth
2. Kids and teens have money and spending influence – and advertisers and credit card companies are coming after them
3. Parents apparently presume someone else is teaching kids about money and finances
4. Whether parents like it or not – or even realize it – kids look to them for financial guidance
5. Financial support to churches and ministries is tenuous at present, and likely to be even weaker in the future

The evidence is clear – your kids need financial training, and they need it from you.

Your kids will learn about money from two primary sources: (1) watching you and (2) having their own experiences with finances. If they’re learning from you, you’re teaching inadvertently (without meaning to) or intentionally (on purpose).

Here’s a sample of activities your kids can learn to master their money.

Generous Giver

Charity Gifts for Birthday Parties

Teaching Goals:

• To reduce the dependency on material gifts for happiness at birthday parties
• To provide experience for your children in encouraging others to give
• To teach kids leverage in giving
• To allow children to directly give to a charity or ministry

Activity Description

Use only if your child is mature enough to understand and “buy into” the idea. For your child’s next birthday party, plan a fun event. When other children are invited, inform parents that no gifts are to be given directly to your child. Tell them your child has chosen a charity to which he requests all gifts be given.

Decorate a box – preferably a see-through container – where monetary gifts can be “deposited.” Decorate the box with information about the charity. After the party, total the money that was given and take the money with your child to the chosen charity. Send thank you notes to each child, letting them know the total amount given.

Sharp Shopper

Food Court Funding

Teaching Goals:

• To teach kids how to allocate spending within boundaries
• To give them experience with minor decision-making

Activity Description

Give your kids a predetermined amount to spend at a mall food court. Set the amount high enough to have a decent meal, but not so high as to order the super size of everything. Let the kids order and pay the cashier.

Besides teaching principle of smart shopping, you’ll be amazed at how this activity reduces dining out conflict.

Willing Worker

Hire Your Children at Home

Teaching Goals:

• To provide additional opportunities to earn money
• To recognize the effort it takes to earn money

Activity description

Post a list of chores your kids can do for extra money. Call it your “For Hire” list. Put it on the refrigerator or family bulletin board. Beside each job, include the amount to be paid for he work and how frequently it can be done. Here are some examples:

• Pull weeds from landscaped areas (once a month in summer)
• Scrub the bottom of tub/shower (once a week)
• Clean out the garage (twice a year)
• Wash windows (three times a year.
• Wash car (as needed)

Inspect your child’s work after it’s finished. Your aim isn’t to nitpick, but to let your child know that paid labor is evaluated.

Ron and Judy Blue, Jeremy White, Your Kids Can Master Their Money

A NEXT STEP

An efficient approach to helping your kids become financially mature is to teach them “as you go.” In Deuteronomy 6:4-9, God recognized that the Israelites best taught their children as they “went along” in all of life’s daily activities.

Using this same mindset, review the ideas listed above (and find dozens more in the author’s book). Using the three example categories listed, create three chart tablets, each with the titles listed: Generous Giver, Sharp Shopper, and Willing Worker.

Create an opportunity with your children to come up with ideas for each of the three categories, and write them on the chart tablets. Discuss each, and agree on how you and your children will regularly practice one from each category in the coming month.

After the first month, repeat the exercise above for new activities for the next month.

Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 86-3, released February 2018.

This is part of a weekly series posting excerpts from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix book excerpts for church leaders.

SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; each solution is taken from a different book. Additionally, a practical action step is included with each solution.

As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS Remix provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> > Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Family Finances, Ron Blue, SUMS Remix, Your Kids Can Master Their Money

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The Significance Behind Recruiting One More Volunteer

by: Bryan Rose

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Without that backup volunteer in place, conversations that change everything are hard to have. To stop and talk means that a welcoming task will likely not be done. Gospel opportunities exist on your church campus every weekend, but your hospitality team may not be ready to recognize and respond to them. As the leader, it is up to you to recruit that “one more” volunteer to help provide the warmest welcome possible. Here are five holes in your hospitality to fill asap.

This weekend, put someone else…

…on the sidewalk.  The gap between your front doors and your guest parking spaces can feel like a long walk to the first time guest. Playing zone in your hospitality means that someone minds that gap, ready to receive a warm handoff from your parking lot team and walk alongside your guests into the front doors. Do you have anyone smiling on the sidewalk?

…in the parking lot.   The parking lot typically contains the most transactional hospitality moments every weekend. Everyone wearing a vest will necessarily be correctly positioned and focused, to keep every car moving and every pedestrian safe. Do you have anyone else out there who can engage in a relational moment if needed?

…at the back doors.  The invitation to return next Sunday may be more critical than the welcome this Sunday. It is easy to think of hospitality as merely a “before the service” need. However, the questions a first-time guest might have after worship could be much more important than those they have prior. Do you have people at the doors as everyone exits the service?

…in front of a counter.   The worst place for a hospitality leader is behind a desk. It is too easy to hide behind a table, to carry on a conversation with another volunteer behind a counter, and to forget that their first priority is to serve the guest. Do you have anyone positioned out in front of the counter, focused and poised to help?

…in the church office.  The office phone rings all week, and there is typically an operator or receptionist ready to give a warm welcome and connect callers to the appropriate extension. But on Sunday mornings, callers are likely looking for information or maybe even just reaching out for help. Do you have someone answering the phones on Sundays or will callers get an impersonal recording?

Tags: Bryan Rose, Church Guest Experiences, Danny Franks, Guest Experiences, Volunteers

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6 Ways to Maximize Your Budgeting Process

by: Eric Geiger

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Some people believe a budgeting process is a waste of time. I don’t mean the people who have a visceral reaction to budgets and strategy, but there are prudent and wise leaders who view a long budgeting process as bad stewardship. They say things like:

We don’t even know how this year will end.

“We are using this year as a starter for next year, and this year’s story is still being written” is not an unwise or untrue statement.

My budget is irrelevant the first day.

Because things are changing, this is true. Budgets are based on a forecast of the future, and financial forecasters even articulate that the first rule of forecasting is that they are wrong. So why in the world would one invest inordinate amounts of time in a budgeting process?

I agree with their sentiment. A long and complex budgeting process with layers and layers of meetings and communication is overdone and a waste of important time. But before you go overboard with that statement, understand that I am not willing to abandon the budgeting process all together. Instead, I would rather maximize it, make it fruitful, and ensure it is helpful to the team. Here are some thoughts on how not to waste your budgeting process:

1. Start with mission and strategy.

Jack Welch declared that strategy is merely resource allocation, meaning a budget is really a reflection of your strategy. It shows what you value and where you are putting emphasis and focus. Connect any strategic planning you do to your budgeting process. Disconnecting strategic planning from budget planning is not wise. Make budgeting about strategy, not finances.

2. Identify the biggest opportunities for growth and impact.

As you plan, look for the biggest opportunities for growth. Set goals in connection with those opportunities, and plan to finance the biggest opportunities generously.

3. Find waste and re-invest it.

If you and the team have gotten stronger, there is always new waste to pull out of the spending. If you use the budgeting time to uncover expenses that could be better used elsewhere, you are often able to finance the big opportunities. Budgeting lesson: Take funds from what is less fruitful to fund what could be more fruitful. To do that, you must read the next item:

4. Don’t straight-line.

A common mistake in budgeting is to take what you are currently spending in a category and project that for the next year (called straight-lining). Basically, current expenses are copied and pasted as next year’s expenses. But there may be some unwise spending and waste within the category. If you straight-line, you may be straight-lining bad stewardship.

5. Use the time to learn and re-learn.

I learn something new every budgeting cycle. Because people are focused on the type of questions that budgeting raises, the conversations are quick and helpful. Approach budgeting time as a time to learn and re-learn how resources are allocated in light of your strategy.

6. Form a contingency plan.

For the last decade, I have used budgeting to form growth plans. But I have also learned to use that time, the time when everyone is looking deeply into the finances, to form a contingency plan. What will we do if we need to cut 10% from our budget? The plans can be high-level and even on just one page, but I would rather think about a challenging scenario before the chaos of the scenario hits. File the plan away and hopefully you will never need it.

> Read more from Eric

Connect with an Auxano Navigator to learn more about a Generosity Culture in your church.

Tags: Budget Process, Eric Geiger, church budget, church budget process

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Overcome an Overloaded Life: Create Margin

by: VRcurator

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We’re all busy in the same sorts of ways. Our lives are consumed with the crushing weight of family, work, and church activities. Our lives are bombarded with requests, demands, and desires. Individual situations may be quantitatively less busy than others, and some more so, but as a society we are living a shared experience of an overwhelmed life.

Where does it all stop? When will things slow down? How can we recapture time lost?

Technology has delivered time-saving devices that actually consume more time. Progress moves our lives faster and faster, yet we seem incapable of enjoying little if any benefit. We desire and often achieve more. We have bought into a full-life timeshare to only find ourselves bankrupt in emptiness.

Are you asking this question:

I don’t have enough time to do the things I need to do, let alone the things I want to do.

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Margin, by Richard A. Swenson

Margin is the space that once existed between ourselves and our limits. Today we use margin just to get by. This book is for anyone who yearns for relief from the pressure of overload. Reevaluate your priorities, determine the value of rest and simplicity in your life, and see where your identity really comes from. The benefits can be good health, financial stability, fulfilling relationships, and availability for God’s purpose.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

Life in much of the world today is essentially devoid of time and space. The time and space that once existed in the lives of family and friends who regularly lingered after dinner, visited with the neighbors, sat on the front porch, went for long walks, planted flowers or a garden, and always had a full night’s sleep.

People are exhausted from trying to live life in a 24/7 world. People are stressed trying to keep the good things going and the bad things at bay. People are overloaded with things that (maybe) were once good but now are burdens.

We need more time. We need more space. We need more reserves. We need more buffer.

We need margin.

Margin is the space between our load and our limits. It is the amount allowed beyond that which is needed. It is something held in reserve for contingencies or unanticipated situations. Margin is the gap between rest and exhaustion, the space between breathing and suffocating. 

To be healthy, we require margin in at least four areas: emotional energy, physical energy, time, and finances. Conditions of modern living, however, have drained these margins rather than sustaining them.

Restoring Margin in Emotional Energy

1. Cultivate social supports – The existence of intact, functioning, healthy, nurturing systems of social support are as good a resource for replenishing depleted energy reserves as can be found.
2. Reconcile relationships – True reconciliation is one of the most powerful of all human interactions.
3. Serve one another – One of the best ways to heal your own pain is to focus instead on meeting the needs of others.
4. Rest – Be with people and serve them. But be sure to get away occasionally. Escape. Relax. Sleep in. Rest restores.

Restoring Margin in Physical Energy

1. Take personal responsibility – Until we accept personal responsibility for our own health, the road to the future will remain paved with aches.
2. Change your habits – Changing habit disorders often requires changing lifestyles.
3. Decrease intake of fat, sugars, and total calories – There are healthier foods that also taste good, we can change our bad habits, and we can’t afford not to.
4. Exercise for the body, mind, and spirit – One hundred percent of people who exercise to the point of cardiorespiratory fitness will experience an increased sense of well-being.

Restoring Time Margin

1. Expect the unexpected – To plan for the unexpected is not an invitation to sloppiness or mediocrity but instead a concession to reality.
2. Learn to say “No” – Saying No is not just a good idea, it has now become a mathematical necessity.
3. Get less done but do the right things – Busyness is not a synonym for kingdom work – it is only busyness.
4. Prune the activity branches – Even though it is much harder to stop something than start it, periodically, get out the clippers and prune away.

Restoring Financial Margin

1. Live within your harvest – Not only should you make do with what you have but accept what you have.
2. Discipline desires and redefine needs – Clarify the distinction between needs and desires and be honest about it before God.
3. Fast – The world does not stop nor the family fall apart when we unplug from the treadmill of consumerism for a period.
4. Counter culture – Willingly and knowingly wrestle control from a culture wanting to tell us what we must buy and own.

Richard A. Swenson, Margin

A NEXT STEP

Review the above four areas of margin needed in your life, and choose the one that you personally most need at this time.

Block off a two-hour minimum time where you will not be disturbed. Turn off your mobile phone and ask not to be disturbed.

On a chart tablet, list the margin area you chose at the top, and then divide the chart tablet into four quadrants. In each quadrant, list one of the four actions that accompany the margin area above.

Taking at least 20 minutes for each, list actions or thoughts that come to mind in each of the four areas. List everything that comes to mind, even if it doesn’t seem practical at first.

When you have completed all four quadrants, review the tablet and connect any similar actions with a line. Now, force rank at least three actions in each of the quadrants.

List the top three from each quadrant on a new chart tablet entitled, “My Prescriptions for Restoring Margin.” For each, write out a brief description and date as to when you will begin taking this action.

Repeat the above steps once per week until you have covered all four areas of margin in your life. Calendar time one month from the start your work in each of the four areas to revisit your progress, making changes as needed.

Bonus: Walk your leadership team through this exercise. The greatest gift you may give your staff is the ability to create margin.

Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 87-1, released February 2018.

This is part of a weekly series posting excerpts from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix book excerpts for church leaders.

SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; each solution is taken from a different book. Additionally, a practical action step is included with each solution.

As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS Remix provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

> > Subscribe to SUMS Remix <<

Tags: Busy, Margin, Overloaded Life, Richard Swenson, SUMS Remix

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3 Real-Life Examples of 10-10 Lists to Jumpstart Your Journey to Bigger Dreaming

by: Will Mancini

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Cory Hartman has become a good friend this past year as he began to work with me as a collaborative writer. Our big project was to complete the forthcoming book, Younique: Designing the Life God Dreamed for You. (Read the first-ever excerpt here.) Cory is a pastor and a writer who came through a Younique Accelerator. Shortly afterwards he decided to start pursuing writing full-time. I am glad he did.

He and his wife Kelly sat down and worked on their 10-10 Lists together:

Cory’s 10-10 List

Cory’s 10 (12) past

1. I earned a doctoral degree.
2. I got someone (I really, really liked) to marry me.
3. I traveled across the country and saw wonders in National Parks in the West.
4. I won on Jeopardy!
5. I sat in on piano with a gigging band for money.
6. I led my friend Joe to Christ.
7. I won a Magic: The Gathering prerelease sealed deck tournament (more than once).
8. I twice served as pastor of a church.
9. I was in a wedding in the National Cathedral.
10. I heard one of my kids participate in an excellent concert performance of a great work (Vivaldi’s Gloria).
11. I co-wrote a book that will be published by an established house with my name on the cover.
12. I performed a Bach keyboard concerto.

Cory’s 10 future

1. I want to be part of starting a church that reaches intellectuals who don’t yet know Christ.
2. I want to give away a million dollars of my (our) own money.
3. I want to take a river cruise in Europe. (I’m thinking the Rhine.)
4. I want to take a tour of ancient sites where Paul walked.
5. I want to tour Israel with a friend who knows it well.
6. I want to teach an entire course as a guest professor.
7. I want to see a manifestation of genuine spiritual revival with my own eyes in a church or community.
8. I want to give a commencement address.
9. I want to read the entire Oxford History of the United States.
10. I want to live by water for over a year.

Kelly’s 10-10 List

Kelly’s 10 (12) past

1. I performed as myself as a soloist on the Mishler Theatre stage.
2. I took a cross-country trip to California in an RV with my family.
3. I got to see Phantom of the Opera in Toronto in the 11th row.
4. I got an associate’s degree in insurance.
5. I sang in a nightclub in New Jersey with legit NYC singers.
6. I gave birth to four children.
7. I conducted a pit orchestra at the Mishler Theatre.
8. I auditioned for Scott Alan in New York City.
9. I took an RV trip to Montana and got to see glaciers.
10. My husband and I had an amazing date at the top of a revolving restaurant in New York City and saw a Broadway show.
11. I got to see my son perform a lead role in a musical.
12. I gave Jonathan Groff solicited performance advice.

Kelly’s 10 future

1. I want to live in a house I own on the Massachusetts North Shore.
2. I want to perform on Broadway.
3. I want to help broker full reconciliation between estranged family members.
4. I want to do a Mediterranean cruise.
5. I want to visit the Sydney Opera House.
6. I want always to have some chunk of time with all of our family (kids and grandkids) together every year.
7. I want to perform in Boston.
8. I want to ride in a hot air balloon.
9. I want to help someone I know to see truth that enables them to walk away from destructive behavior.
10. I want to sing the national anthem for a major professional sports team.

John’s 10-10 List

John Thielepape is the Director of Missions for a Baptist association of churches in Texas. He is a stellar dude who keeps himself sharp with the best certifications in order to train pastors. He came though Younique years ago and is finishing his 100 Life Dreams List. He sent a pic o f his 10-10 List below.

Much thanks to Cory, Kelly and John for granting permission to publish their lists. As you know, these are very personal.

Many of you have sent in your lists or are mentioning that you are following along with this initiative. Thank you to you even though I am not publishing them all. And, if you are following along with this #LifeDesignWithMe project, please let me know.

> Read more from Will.

Tags: #LifeDesignWithMe, 10-10 List, Life Planning, younique

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The Dangerous Moment When Attendance Drops but Giving Stays Strong

by: Sam Rainer III

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I’ve noticed a recent trend among churches. The evidence is more anecdotal, but I have no doubt the phenomenon is occurring on a national scale. While more than half of all churches are in some form of attendance decline, a segment of these declining churches experiences either stability in giving or an increase in giving at the same time people are leaving.

This phenomenon is even more amazing when considering general giving trends. Overall, charitable giving is on the rise in the United States, but churches are receiving a smaller portion. In 1987, religious organizations received 53% of all charitable donations. In 2014, religious organizations received only 32% of all charitable giving, a 30-year dramatic downward slide.

What’s happening in churches where giving remains strong while attendance drops?

The economy is good (for now). The latest bull market run is the longest in our nation’s history, though significant December declines gave everyone pause. We’ll see if it continues. Regardless, our nation’s economy is doing well, which benefits giving at churches. Some churches have committed members who are giving more even as their churches decline in attendance. But should the bears overtake the bulls in the markets, fewer churches will experience the phenomenon of increased giving during a season of decreased worship attendance.

Established churches can have older, institutional givers. The giving phenomenon is occurring at established churches with long-term members who are in the older generation of loyal, institutional givers. I have these givers in my church, and they are a key part of our financial stability. Even the ones that can no longer attend regularly make sure to mail their tithe every week. They don’t attend because of health, but they still give.

Attendance frequency is decreasing at the same time digital giving is increasing. The most common reason why worship attendance declines is attendance frequency. People who once came to church almost every week are now attending every other week. In fact, a weekly average attendance of 500 will become a weekly average attendance of 250 when people attend every other week as opposed to every week. Your church feels like it is half the size even though people are still coming (just not as much)!

At the same time, digital giving enables people to give even when they are gone. Some people who give through the offering plate do not make it up when they miss a Sunday (although I’m thankful for those who do!). However, those who have automatic deductions through digital giving typically do not miss a week of giving even when they miss a week of attendance—giving every week but not attending every week, same as those who are homebound but for different reasons.

Here is what it looks like in the real world. I recently helped a church that has experienced a ten percent decline in attendance over the last several years but saw giving go up by almost twenty percent during the same timeframe. Where you can tell the most is in the per capita giving metric, which measures the amount each attendee gives each week. Their per capita giving over the last few years has risen sharply.

On the surface, the above figure looks good. The numbers are going up! But scratch the surface and you’ll find it’s more a problem for the church than anything else. Strong giving is masking the underlying issue of an inward focus. Obviously, this trend comes with many other dangers, like how a church can become complacent since the money is there even when the people are not. I’ll have to explore these dangers in a future post. I realize a lot of churches would love to have a year in which giving goes up, but it’s not always a sign of a healthy church.

> Read more from Sam.

Tags: Attendance Decline, Giving Increase, Sam Rainer

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This is the Most Toxic Threat a Church Member Will Make

by: Thom Rainer

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One of the most toxic statements a church member or group of church members can make is, “We pay the bills at this church.” Not only is it unbiblical, it is clearly divisive. It creates an “us versus them” mentality in the church.

Why is the statement so harmful? Here are five reasons.

1. It makes giving more like paying country club dues than biblical stewardship. Thus, a certain level of giving by a member or a group engenders a sense of entitlement. The people who give with this attitude never really let go of the funds. They continue to hold on to them with strings of conditions.
2. It is manipulative. In essence, giving becomes a controlling mechanism. If the church doesn’t do what I want it to do, I will withhold my funds. I have known church members and groups of church members that have held onto funds until they finally got their way. At that point, they released the funds to the church. They were truly holding the church hostage.
3. It becomes a way of circumventing the budget. Most churches approve a budget every year. It becomes the guide for the church to steward the funds given to the congregation. On too many occasions, a malcontent in the church decides he or she doesn’t like the approved plans for spending, so they threaten to withhold their funds. One person told me smugly he knew the church was not spending funds in the best way, so his implied threat to withhold funds was necessary. I wonder what he thinks of the biblical story of the widow’s mite (Mark 12:41-44). She gave without reservation, but I doubt the Temple was the paragon of stewardship excellence.
4. It creates different classes of members in the church. There are those who have and who can make such threats, and there are those who do not have and, thus, have insufficient resources to make demands. As noted earlier, this statement is both inflammatory and divisive.
5. It is contrary to the servant spirit of Christ. Jesus was crystal clear on his mission. He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Some church members utter the toxic statement, “We pay the bills at this church” to get their own way. Jesus made the sacrificial statement that He would put others before Himself, so much so that He would die for others.

“We pay the bills at this church.”

It is a toxic statement.

It is an unbiblical statement.

It is contrary to the spirit in which the Lord Himself came to serve, to give, and to sacrifice.

> Read more from Thom.

Tags: Thom Rainer, Threat, Toxic Statement

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Developing Generous Children, Part One: Create a Family Financial Vision

by: VRcurator

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Humans tend to obsess over what they possess – or desire to possess.

Consider the following thoughts by Craig Bloomberg, professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary:

• The poor strive to acquire enough to survive
• Those whose basic needs are met naturally want more as a cushion
• The middle class is discontent because they see people with more
• The affluent compete with their peers in material one-upmanship

Advertising bombards us constantly, creating a consumer culture designed to make us feel shortchanged and always looking to acquire the next possession.

How do we stand any chance of developing generous children in such a consumeristic society?

THE QUICK SUMMARY – Kingdom-Focused Finances by Gary Miller

Kingdom-Focused Finances for the Family is easy to understand and enjoyable to read; it is Kingdom teaching for a Kingdom-focused people. Author Gary Miller disassembles our view of finances and carefully puts it all back together in a way that makes sense.

With its common sense approach to personal finances and an emphasis on glorifying God, this book is realistic, humorous, and serious about helping us become stewards instead of owners.

A SIMPLE SOLUTION

If we want our children to rise to a higher standard and learn to live for the Kingdom, it will take more than outward compliance to standards. These standards are important, but our children need to see a higher level of self-denial in our lives.

Our use of money tells children what we actually value the most, and we need God’s help to embody a godly financial vision and achieve a lasting legacy through our children.

It is easier for all of us to labor toward a goal when we believe in the vision.

What is the overriding vision for your home? If your vision is to use every resource your family possesses to build the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, I encourage you to instill this vision in your children at a young age.

Your home should have a clear goal, and every choice should be made in light of this overriding vision. Therefore, prayerfully consider the following suggestions.

Communicate the vision often. If you children understand your vision for your finances, they will be more enthusiastic about working together to reach a goal. Make them an integral part of building the Kingdom. Let them think of ways to save and places to spend. Discuss Satan’s attempts to distract us from a godly financial vision. Be open about your own struggles in maintaining vision. Show them how to properly deal with weaknesses and how to humbly ask for accountability.

Keep the target polished. Use meal times and family devotions to discuss the needs your family wants to target. Maybe you have a widow living down the road, grandparents who need help around the house, or someone in your congregation who has a special need. Keep holding needs up before your family. This will help keep the vision clear and the target for your finances polished.

Discuss the connection between home projects and the target. Children know when they are just being kept busy. But they will be much more interested and willing to help if they know why they are working. Our children will enthusiastically go the second mile to make a home project work if they understand why they are doing it.

Be on the alert for hypocrisy. Children also have a great ability to sniff out hypocrisy. I believe the number one reason the suggestions listed above fail is due to a double standard in our homes. Our children will labor for a vision if the vision has value. But the child learns the worth of the vision by his parents’ willingness to sacrifice for it.

Gary Miller, Kingdom-Focused Finances

A NEXT STEP

The following are some questions for reflection by author Gary Miller as you consider a family financial vision:

• What are some ideas on how you can connect your children to the vision of Kingdom building?

• How can keeping the needs of others before ourselves and our children help keep us focused on the goal of building the Kingdom?

• How does doing this affect our thankfulness and contentment?

• Why is it important to share our weaknesses with our children and ask for their prayers?

• Have your children ever reminded you when you have strayed from your verbal teaching in this area of stewardship?

Excerpt taken from SUMS Remix 86-1, released February 2018.

This is part of a weekly series posting excerpts from one of the most innovative content sources in the church world: SUMS Remix book excerpts for church leaders.

SUMS Remix takes a practical problem in the church and looks at it with three solutions; each solution is taken from a different book. Additionally, a practical action step is included with each solution.

As a church leader you get to scan relevant books based on practical tools and solutions to real ministry problems, not just by the cover of the book. Each post will have the edition number which shows the year and what number it is in the overall sequence. (SUMS Remix provides 26 issues per year, delivered every other week to your inbox). 

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Tags: Family Generosity, Gary Miller, Kingdom Focused Finances

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Five Clear Ways to Lead from a Place of Love

by: Dan Reiland

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The love of God is both incomprehensible and incomparable.

It’s difficult to fully understand the depth of God’s love. There’s no end to it. It’s a love that surpasses knowledge. (Ephesians 3:19)

Paul prays that [we] have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide, and long, and high, and deep is the love of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:18)

A perfect love can’t be measured, or fully understood, but it can be experienced. It can be expressed, and that’s what God asks of us, to lead with this kind of love.

A love that is incomparable – “the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.“ (Ephesians 2:7)

It’s because of His great love for us (Ephesians 2:4) that we do what we do.

I don’t know about you, but that can be an overwhelming thought at times.

I have to rest in His grace to know that He can use me to lead based on a motive of love. My love is so imperfect, yet God’s love says this is exactly what he wants me to do.

There are two things that help me grasp something as grand as this.

1. God reminds me that it’s not about me and my love. It’s about God and His love. And if I genuinely seek to express God’s love, He helps fill in where I fall short. That doesn’t remove my humanity, it elevates God’s love and power.
2. If I remain diligently focused on His purpose, that helps keep my motives pure.

It’s easy for any leader to get caught up in the everyday responsibilities from first time visitors to staffing issues and end up missing the big picture.

The following paragraph is a devotional I wrote in an attempt to capture a succinct biblical summary of God’s purpose for the church and the nature of our calling.

It helps me keep focused on the big picture.

Our salvation (Eph 2:5,8), and the work that we have been divinely prepared for (Eph 2:10), was established in love (Eph 2:4; 3:17), according to His eternal purpose (Eph 3:11). And now, through the church (Eph 3:10), and with his power (Eph 3:20), we are called to know this love, (Eph. 3:19) and lead with this love, to fulfill His purpose.

The church does not exist for itself, but for God’s glory. The purpose (Eph 3:11) is the revelation of God by reconciliation through Christ. My leadership can’t exist for itself, it has to be for God.

So how do we carry the love of God and His purpose into our leadership?

How do we make this practical?

We can start by acknowledging the temptation (not intention) to lead from a platform of power rather than a platform of love.

Love keeps us on purpose and helps throttle power.

It’s easy to veer off purpose and occasionally misuse authority. I’m not suggesting something of malice or intentionality, but things like overwork, pride, pressure, insecurity, jealousy, fear etc., are common every day realities that can temporarily pull us off the purpose that God’s Word has made clear.

A misuse of power or authority is not a reflection of God’s love. It might be faster, but it doesn’t work in the long run.

God’s biblical picture of love helps us stay on track.

The following 5 expressions of God’s love are core to you and I leading the way Jesus models for us.

They help us as we cast vision, create strategy, and drive forward to make progress – but doing it the way He has designed while remaining focused on His purpose.

5 practical expressions of love in leadership:

1) Grace

The body of Christ depends on relationships working in a redemptive manner. When there is conflict, giving the benefit of the doubt and extending forgiveness if needed is foundational to loving leadership. It’s not always easy, but it’s the model Christ set for us.

Disagreements within the church have existed since the early church.

From a theological division to someone is mad about the kind of coffee the church serves, conflict is not new. But it’s still up to us as leaders to do everything we can to resolve conflict in order to maintain strong and healthy relationships without sacrificing the purpose.

That’s the key. It’s not about passivity or a people pleasing posture, that loses ground for the Kingdom, it’s about grace while staying on God’s purpose.

2) Truth

We all know the scripture about speaking the truth in love. I love that passage because it’s so practical.

It’s easy to use the grace we just talked about in order to avoid the tough conversations that are necessary in leadership.

Grace isn’t an invitation to lower standards, it’s an obligation to speak truth.

God’s love is anything but soft and weak. It’s strong, courageous and requires the strength to say what needs to be said.

How we say it makes all the difference. Truth doesn’t require force or anger to back it up, truth can stand on its own. Truth backed up by love is a leader’s greatest ally.

3) Generosity

Generosity is often thought of first in connection to finances. When someone is generous, they give freely of their financial resources. But there is so much more to generosity. In fact, it’s far more a spirit within you, a disposition and a way of life than merely how much money you give.

Generosity is connected to giving your time, expressing kind words of encouragement, and opening doors of opportunity. A generous leader is quick to offer help, wisdom and good ideas, and loves others sincerely.

4) Compassion

As a young leader, compassion was difficult for me. I didn’t want to slow down. There was so much to do. But as I’ve matured, (and still have much to learn), it’s become abundantly clear how close compassion is to God’s heart.

I’ve learned that compassion can’t be expressed on the run. You have to stop to express care. It doesn’t mean if you don’t stop that you don’t care, but it does mean that no one will know you care and experience the love you have for them, if you don’t slow down at the appropriate moments.

That’s a real tension for a busy leader. You can’t stop for every need, but you and I must remain attentive to God so that we can tend to the moments of compassion He needs us to attend to.

5) Sacrifice

Sacrifice is at the core of God’s love. He gave His son for our eternal life. But how can we possibly model that example? The purity and commitment of that love is staggering, which can take us back to that overwhelmed feeling I mentioned in the beginning of this post.

The idea of sacrifice can get weird quick if we are not careful. It’s not about a works-based leadership. It’s not about performance or getting attention because we work so hard.

Sacrifice simply acknowledges that love always gives more than it takes. That’s enough. Personally, that’s a lifetime challenge for me to attain as a leader. But God helps me find the joy in it, the joy in serving others and seeing people live better lives – more closely connected God.

So, how about you?

Which ones are you doing well? When you think about grace, truth, generosity, compassion and sacrifice, where are you strong? What needs improvement?

> Read more from Dan.

Tags: Compassion, Dan Reiland, Generosity, Grace, Leadership with love, Sacrifice, Truth

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How to Fund Your Ministry Vision

by: Brandon Cox

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What’s the ONE subject almost no church leader enjoys talking about?

Yep. Money.

Talking about money feels icky. Asking for money makes us feel like we’re begging. So we tiptoe. We skirt around the issue, assuming that taking a softer and more silent approach will earn us good will with people.

And to be sure, being soft or silent about giving and money will win us points with some people – especially people who don’t want to be challenged to grow in generosity and discipleship.

And that’s the problem.

Part of the mission of making disciples is teaching people to be more like Jesus. And Jesus was and is a Giver. In fact, God is THE Giver of all givers. Remember John 3:16?

If you’re a Senior Pastor, Executive Pastor, or any kind of stewardship specialist or administrative leader within your church, you need to get more comfortable talking about money with the congregation.

Here’s why…

• It’s a discipleship issue. People grow spiritually as they learn to loosen their grip on earthly possessions and sacrificially invest in something bigger and more eternal than what they see in the here and now.
• It’s a stewardship issue. Challenging people to give helps people to direct their funds into something that has a long term (eternal) payoff instead of more stuff that fades away.
• It’s a vision issue. If you believe in what God has called your church to do, then you must believe that God’s means of supporting and supplying it is through the generosity of his people.
• It’s an empowerment issue. Tons of people are not giving up to their potential because they simply haven’t been invited to do so with any kind of compelling invitation at all.

Our church is in the middle of a move. As I write this, we’re in the home stretch of a construction project. We purchased a building and we’re remodeling it into a meeting space so we can move out of our leased facility.

When we announced the decision to move, we knew we needed funds to do so. Even though the monthly cost to service our new debt was about the same as our rent payment, we needed quite a bit of capital to make the purchase and then do the building and finishing out of the space.

So we asked God to provide at least $250,000 in addition to our regular giving, which amounted to about 40% of our annual budget.

I’d never made an ask that large of our congregation – or any other I’d led for that matter. Obviously, plenty of leaders have successfully raised far more, but for our seven-year-old church, it was a rather significant goal.

And to brag on my church for a second, THEY DID IT! (And I’m extremely proud of them, to say the least!)

With one day left in the 2018 calendar year, we surpassed our goal! And people are still giving toward the move.

In the first five years of our church’s life, we transitioned from 100% of our budget being met by outside supporters to 100% being met by the tithes and offerings of our members. We’ve been able to send missionaries, support other church plants, train and support church planting teams, serve our community, and carry on all of the ministry that happens within our church family on a weekly basis as well.

Over those seven years, I’ve learned a few big lessons – some of them the hard way – about how to raise funds to support ministry and missions.

Here are a few of my top tips…

Handle Money with Integrity

Our financial record-keeping is outsourced to Belay Solutions. We receive offerings and make the deposits, then Belay steps in and manages our funds and our budgets, reconciles our statements, and handles our payroll, taxes, and reporting.

We work hard to comply with all laws and maintain high ethical standards so that people can give with greater confidence.

Help People Get Unstrapped

People feel way better about giving when they aren’t financially strapped. And part of our role in presenting the wisdom and power of scripture is addressing the most personal and vital of personal areas of life, including personal finances.

In the middle of our big season of fundraising, I taught a series of messages called UnStrapped, designed to help people apply biblical wisdom to getting out of debt, saving more, and becoming more generous. It’s hard to ask people to give before we’ve offered this kind of spiritual help.

Lead by Example

One of the coolest moments, for me, was being able to announce that our staff (whose livelihoods are connected to the giving of our congregation) were giving 15% of our big goal themselves.

Tithing and generosity are part of our culture, and they’re part of a commitment staff members make at the outset of becoming part of the Grace Hills team. It’s part of our staff covenant because we believe in leading by example.

Share a Big Vision

The Bible is clear about at least one thing – our dreams are almost always too small. Ephesians 3:20-21 says, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever!” (NLT)

Whatever you think God can do, it’s always, always more. Every time I see God come through, I realize just how small my vision actually is.

Value Everyone’s Contribution

Some people gave tens of thousands of dollars toward our big goal, but the offerings that broke my heart were usually about $5, given by single moms and widows and people with fixed incomes or no incomes at all, but who wanted to be a part of what God was doing.

I know there are various opinions among pastors about how to challenge “large donors,” but I continue to have the conviction that we must truly, deep in our hearts, value every single contribution. Yes, some people need to be challenged to give large amounts because God has entrusted them with much, but never fail to appreciate the magnitude of someone with almost nothing, sharing it because they love Jesus and his church.

Celebrate Generosity Openly

Over time, we become what we celebrate. The primary task of a leader, long term, is creating a healthy culture. And part of having a healthy church culture is celebrating the giving of God’s people.

Raise Faith, Not Just Funds

There’s a big difference between asking people to give money to meet the church’s financial needs and asking people to stretch their faith and give because they need to grow spiritually. We don’t just raise funds for the church. We raise funds for those who will give, and who will grow as a result of their giving.

It’s always about stewardship and discipleship. I’m moved that our church gave and met the need. I’m even more moved that so many people were thrilled to be part of what God was doing.

I believe that our church is just now beginning to witness such miracles, and many more are to come in our future. Ultimately, what delights me most is that we’re on the same page when it comes to the mission of reaching more people who need the light and hope of the good news of Jesus Christ!

Read more from Brandon.

Connect with an Auxano Navigator to learn more about funding your ministry.

Tags: Brandon Cox, funding ministry, ministry funding, money

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